Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Life imitates art, which is inspired by quiet village life

Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson

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15-word review: Anonymous spinster Barbara Buncle writes a book to pay the bills, her entire village rages. This witty novel, originally published in 1934, features rather plain and unassuming village spinster Barbara Buncle falling on hard times and writing a novel to make enough money to be able to pay her bills. She briefly considered keeping chickens but doesn’t like birds. As Miss Buncle hasn’t really been anywhere or experienced much outside village life, she uses her own neighbours and the village of Copperfield where […]

Hot vet and social media star find love in a small town

Chick Magnet by Emma Barry

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#CBR15 Passport Challenge – Different genres (contemporary romance) Readers of my blog know that all my reviews are written on my personal blog and then crossposted here on the Cannonball Read, which celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this year(!) The recent comment diversion celebrating this, challenging us to write fifteen-word reviews seemed like the opposite of everything my review style represents. I frequently have review titles longer than fifteen words.  Nevertheless, I decided to use the comment diversion to try to help myself through my review […]

Clearly going to be one of my favourite books of the year

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

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You know in a lot of romantic comedies, the hero already has a girlfriend, but she’s stern, and demanding and seems to have absolutely no feelings that don’t revolve around her career and probably living in the big city? The woman who eventually gets left, so the hero can get with the charming, free-spirited, understanding and much more laid-back heroine of the rom-com? Nora Stephens is that woman. She loves her life in New York City, she loves her Peloton bike, she loves her designer […]

“Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small.”

Björnstad (Beartown) by Fredrick Backman

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CBR13 Bingo: Sports Ball (could easily also be used as Rec’d, since a lot of Cannonballers have read and reviewed it favourably) Official book description: People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better […]

“On her First Holy Communion, Majella could remember sitting in the chapel for a long time, with Jesus stuck to the roof of her mouth, and her trying to peel him off with her tongue. Somehow she knew picking him off with her finger was all wrong.”

Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen

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Majella is the queen of coping; she has developed a system of avoiding eye contact, she gladly relies on years-long joke exchanges orchestrated by her customers and coworkers, and she is clear about people explaining idioms and small-town customs to her as a needed relief. She is also coping with the world around her; her uncle “died for the cause”, her IRA-adjacent father disappeared years ago, her mother is lost in a haze of whiskey, and her beloved grandmother has recently been beaten to death. […]

A first impression can often be misleading

Her Pretend Christmas Date by Jackie Lau

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Disclaimer! I was given an ARC of this book by the author. That has in no way influenced my review. Julie Tam’s sister Charlotte is an engineer and has an outgoing and charming boyfriend, the guy who lived next door when they were young. She is everything their parents could want. Meanwhile, Julie works as a waitress in a Cider Bar and designs her own jewelry. She goes on a blind date with Tom Yeung, which starts out badly and ends even worse. Tom is a […]



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